I don't own Night World. Jez 13, Morgead 14.

Punishment

Jez didn't want to admit it. Even just to herself.

It wasn't as if it was always true. Just a little feeling now and then when she let her guard down. It was in circumstances like this, when it would take too much effort and bother to directly and obviously go against the authority. Even if they were human.

She never missed Morgead at any other time, anyway.

"Miss Redfern?"

Jez jumped and sat up straight abruptly, realising that she'd almost fallen asleep face-down on the table. She heard a snicker from the other side of the room, probably Morgead.

"I recommend you refrain from falling asleep in my classroom."

Jez blinked, trying to clear her head. Only physics lessons could make a vampire foggy.

Alright, gormless? Morgead said in her mind. She frowned and pushed him out forcefully, though she could still feel his amusement. She looked over to him. He was looking back at her, leaning against the table behind him, long legs stretched in front of him. His eyes were bright and mocking.

Jez decided to ignore him.

It wasn't as if she could have time to miss him. Seriously, the guy was always with her. Sometimes she had to get away because she was so sick of seeing his face all the time. But at least then she could chose when to go.

She was distracted by a strange sight. The teacher was standing at the front with a short length of rope, spinning round a rubber bung like a lasso.

Jez blinked. Okay, I'm so bored I've started hallucinating?

"...so, as you can see, the centripetal force keeps it going in a circle. What will happen if the centripetal force is cut out, Morgead?"

Jez turned to see Morgead looking completely stumped.

Jez? she heard. Morgead's mental voice. A little help?

It explodes.

"It'll explode?" he said, completely seriously.

Jez bit on her lip and fought a laugh.

"Listen in future," the teacher said, exasperated. Jez was sure she should have learnt that Morgead didn't know anything about anything. Especially if it was as useless as this.

Morgead turned to Jez with a confused expression, then apparently caught up and glared at her.

Gullible child.

This time he forced her out. Jez smiled angelically at him. For the first time in several months, she actually payed attention to the teacher.

No kidding. All they had to do was swing the bung around like a damn lasso. Even Val could have done it.

Jez knew exactly what she was going to do. She built up power in the swing , until it was going faster than human eyes could track it. Finally, she let it fly towards Morgead's table, thinking 'incoming!' right at him. He ducked just in time, even being kind enough to pull down the girl who was next to him, who laughingly said, "We're under attack!"

"Miss Redfern!"

Oops. "Just testing out the centripetal force, miss. It's not very good."

"You're supposed to keep hold of it, Jez," Morgead called out.

Jez fought back a smile. "That would be why. You could have explained it better."

Two spots of bright red had appeared on her cheeks. "Get out," she said. "You too," she threw to Morgead.

They sat down in their normal places, the soft chairs just outside the door, both of them grinning.

It wasn't really much of a punishment.